Integrating CameoSim and MuSES to Support Vehicle-Terrain Interaction in an IR Synthetic Scene

摘要

Modeling infrared (IR) synthetic scenes typically involves a different paradigm than modeling vehicles and other targets. Ground vehicles are modeled using meshed geometric representations that allow the 3D heat equation to be solved simultaneously for every element in the mesh. This includes calculation of 3D heat conduction, convective heat transfer including plume impingement, and radiation exchange between parts of the vehicle. Due to computational limitations it is not possible to model IR synthetic scenes using this same approach. For most synthetic scenes it is not practical to create geometric representations of each blade of grass or of every leaf. Due to the differences in modeling paradigms it becomes problematic to couple the thermal solutions directly so that the vehicle and terrain interact. For this reason, radiation exchange between the vehicle and the terrain or the effects of plume impingement on the terrain are not often modeled within a synthetic scene. To address this limitation, MuSES (the Multi-Service Electro-optic Signature code), an infrared signature prediction program developed for modeling ground vehicles and other man-made targets, has been integrated into CameoSim, a broadband scene simulation software system that produces high resolution synthetic imagery of natural terrestrial scenes. To achieve the desired level of thermal interaction, a geometric description of the terrain surrounding the target is exported from CameoSim into MuSES; MuSES then calculates the temperature of both the target and the supplied terrain. To minimize artifacts between the temperature prediction of the terrain local to and distant from the target, MuSES terrain thermal models can be specified for use in the greater CameoSim scene. The resulting software tool is capable of modeling large scale IR synthetic scenes that include full thermal interaction between the target and the terrain in an area local to the target.